Letter 829

To Euphemius the Archimandrite. It is written that there gathered to David, the most excellent man, every man who was in distress, and everyone in debt, and every soul that was in anguish, and David was their leader [1 Samuel 22:2]. All, then, who are gripped by the constrictions of filthy thoughts, and who are choked by the reasonings of envy, of blasphemy, and of acedia [spiritual sloth or despondency], of hatred and of irascibility, and of the other countless wicked and blasphemous imaginings; and all who know themselves to be subject to debts for many transgressions; and all who happen to be anguished in their souls because of shameful and base passions, and the touches of the demons, and the bitter burning [of lust], and the rest: let all these, even though they be clerics, Nazirites [consecrated ascetics], and renounced ones [monks who have renounced the world], flee for refuge to the David understood spiritually, that is, to Christ Jesus, the most loving of mankind, with weeping and with supplications, so that they may be consoled.

Γέγραπται, ὅτι Συνήγοντο πρὸς Δαυΐδ τὸν χρηστότατον πᾶς ἄνθρωπος ἐν ἀνάγκῃ τυγχάνων, καὶ πᾶς ὑπόχρεως, καὶ πᾶσα κατάδυνος ψυχή, καὶ ἦν ἐπ’ αὐτῶν ἡγούμενος ὁ Δαυΐδ. Ὅσοι τοίνυν συνέχονται ταῖς τῶν ῥυπαρῶν ἐνθυμημάτων συνοχαῖς, καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν λογισμῶν πνίγονται τοῦ φθόνου, καὶ τῆς βλασφημίας, καὶ τῆς ἀκηδίας, τοῦ μίσους καὶ τῆς ὀξυχολλίας, καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἀμετρήτων πονηρῶν καὶ βλασφήμων ἐννοιῶν, καὶ ὅσοι ἐπίστανται ὑποκειμένους ἑαυτοὺς χρέεσι πλημμελημάτων πολλῶν, καὶ ὅσοι κατώδυνοι τυγχάνουσι τὰς ψυχὰς διὰ τὰ αἰσχρὰ καὶ ἀνελεύθερα πάθη, καὶ τὰς ἐπαφὰς τῶν δαιμόνων, καὶ τὴν δριμεῖαν πύρωσιν, καὶ τὰ ἄλλα· οὗτοι πάντες, κἄν τε κληρικοὶ, Ναζωραῖοι, καὶ ἀποτεταγμένοι. ὑπάρχωσι, προσφευγέτωσαν τῷ νοουμένῳ Δαυΐδ, συντεῖστι Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ φιλανθρωποτάτῳ μετὰ κλαυθμοῦ καὶ λιτῶν, ὅπως παρηγορηθῶσιν.